FORMER Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Monday, April 16, disavowed reports that he had ordered the shredding of some documents at the Department of Justice (DOJ) before he left his post last week.

If some documents were indeed shredded, Aguirre said he knew nothing about it.

"I did not order any of my personnel to shred documents during my last day in the office at the DOJ," he said in a statement.

Photos of several plastic bags containing supposed shredded documents circulated online since Aguirre stepped down from his post last week. The documents supposedly came from the offices of Aguirre and Justice Undersecretary Reynante Orceo.

Aguirre hit the newspaper report about the shredded documents, calling it "downright malicious."

"Asuming for the sake of argument that it was true, what is wrong with shredding papers when what were shredded were already considered waste? The shredding could have been done to prepare the office for the incoming Justice secretary. We can even surmise that it was done to get rid of unneeded or unwanted documents. In fact, shredding of documents is being regularly done in public and private offices," Aguirre said.

He added: "To ascribe malicious imputations against the supposed acts of my people is very irresponsible journalism."

Aguirre left his post last week following his resignation, days after the DOJ made public its resolution absolving alleged drug lords Peter Lim and Kerwin Espinosa of the drug charges lodged against them by the Philippine National Police.

The former justice chief has remained mum on the reasons for his resignation. (SunStar Philippines)